Concealed Carrier Gets Fired for Saving Woman’s Life

How do you feel about guns in the work place? Would you prefer to work in a gun free or gun friendly environment? Which work environment would you feel safest?

A growing number of businesses and employers are banning guns, including legally permitted conceal carry guns, from their premises. They believe it provides a safer environment for their workers, but is that really the truth?

A year ago I reported about a pharmacist in West Virginia who had a man pull a gun on him and demand pills and money. Instead of caving in to armed robber, the pharmacist pulled out his own and shot the robber. The pharmacy owner said he believes in the Second Amendment right to protect one’s self and that he fully supported the actions of his pharmacist. Incidentally, the robber died from being shot in the chest and no charges were filed against the pharmacist. Considering how many times we hear of a store clerk or cashier being shot by an armed robber, I say this incident turned out right.

Several years back, a 70-year-old coach of a girl’s high school basketball team in Detroit was escorting two of the girls to their cars when two teenaged boys grabbed him by a necklace he was wearing and shoved something against his chest that he assumed was a gun. It turned out the coach was a police reserve officer who was armed at the time. He managed to pull out his gun shoot the two teens, one of which died from his wounds and the other ended up in the hospital in serious condition. Fortunately, the coach was not charged nor did he lose his coaching position.

Many jobs take one outside into various places within a city that can put them in dangerous situations such as utility workers in Detroit. Several years ago, two Detroit utility workers found themselves confronted by a pair of armed teenagers. However, one of the utility workers had a permit to carry concealed weapons and he used that legal weapon to protect his co-worker and himself by shooting both teens. At the time of their hospitalization one teen was in serious condition and the other was in critical condition. Liberals in Detroit called the two incidents of armed employees defending themselves an ‘alarming trend.’

Perhaps General Motors may re-think their no gun policy after what happened earlier this week. A 32-year-old woman showed up in the lobby of a General Motors Technical Center in Michigan and asked to see 52-year-ol Stephanie Kerr. After talking for a bit in the lobby the two women went outside the building where the 32-year-old woman pulled out a knife and started stabbing Kerr who started screaming for help.

Didarul Sarder, a 32-year-old valet service supervisor was nearby and heard the screams. He holds a conceal carry permit and was armed at the time. Pulling out his gun, he stopped the brutal stabbing and held the attacker at gunpoint until police arrived on the scene several minutes later.

Kerr, stabbed in the neck, back and abdomen, was taken to a local hospital where she was listed in critical condition. Had Sarder not been legally armed, there is a great chance that the stabbing would have continued and mostly likely Kerr would have died.

So what happened to Sarder for his heroic act? Sarder described the reaction of his boss, saying:

“He said, ‘You shouldn’t have had a firearm here. After this is done he needs to be escorted off the property. He’s not welcome back here.’”

“I was really bummed out. I got a little emotional.”

Sarder was also concerned about Kerr, saying:

“The lady kept saying ‘I’m dying, someone help,’ and it was just natural reaction. I just see this lady getting stabbed. I only had, like, half a second to think and I un-holstered my firearm and pointed it at her to drop the knife.”

“I hope she makes it. Maybe those few seconds before the police arrived could be the difference between life and death.”

Sarder has worked for a company that was contracted by General Motors for 10 years, but had only been at the GM Training Center since December and was unaware of GM’s no gun on the premises policy.

Jim Fouts, Mayor of Warren, Michigan commented about what happened to Sarder, writing:

“Right after it happened someone in authority asked him off the premises because he violated company rules with a gun. That was absolutely the wrong response to this hero. However, that decision was over-ruled by higher ups and he now has his job back.”

I’m glad to hear that Sarder got his job back, but I have to wonder if GM will reconsider their no gun police in light of what happened. Somehow I doubt it. Like so many other anti-gun policies, I suspect the leadership at GM is more concerned about the liberal anti-gun agenda than they are about the actual safety of employees and visitors.

They fail to realize that the majority of mass shootings occur in gun free areas where no one is allowed to be armed and use their gun to save a life or lives as in the case of Stephanie Kerr.

Allow me to present two incidents to prove my point.

#1 – The theater in Aurora, Colorado was a gun free zone, meaning no one was allowed to carry a gun. Consequently, James Holmes illegally brought guns into the theater and opened fire on the crowd, killing 12 and wounding many others. No one was armed to stop the carnage.

#2 – On December 9, 2007, Matthew Murray approached the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, carrying an AR-15 Bushmaster rifle and two handguns. After shooting at several people outside the church, Murray made his way inside the church of 10,000 parishioners and began firing again. Shortly after the shooting began, Jeanne Assam, a parishioner, pulled out her legally permitted handgun and confronted Murray, firing five shots at him. Murray fell backwards and Assam approached him and told him to put down his gun, but Murray fired in her direction. Assam responded with three more shots into Murray. As he leans against a wall, bleeding from his wounds. Murray reached for a grenade at his shoulder in a last attempt to kill more people when Assam shot him two more times. Murray had managed to kill two people and wound 3 others before Assam stepped in with her legally conceal carry gun. It was obvious that Murray intended to shoot and kill many more people and that the actions of Jeanne Assam saved countless lives.

Which situation would you prefer to be in or have your loved ones in? One where you are totally unprotected or one where at least one person is armed and could protect you?

R.L. David Jolly holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and an M.S. in Biology – Population Genetics. He has worked in a number of fields, giving him a broad perspective on life, business, economics and politics. He is a very conservative Christian, husband, father and grandfather who cares deeply for his Savior, family and the future of our troubled nation.